


see you tomorrow

by starryeyedfool



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Death, Gen, M/M, ghosts and whatnot, post-societal, slightly bleak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24914623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryeyedfool/pseuds/starryeyedfool
Summary: There was once a lonely and sad ghost.
Relationships: Kim Jongdae | Chen/Oh Sehun
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	see you tomorrow

**Author's Note:**

> Short fic baby that I love dearly -- I think it's pretty good and I hope you think so too :')

The sun was small, low and orange in the sky, sort of pitiful and beautiful at the same time. It made you feel big, loved and admired. You imagined holding that kind of sun.

_That was a star in the palm of your hand._

_That was the whole world._

_It felt so warm._

_But it was still too small._

And the city was still ruined. The birds, gone. The other animals, all ghosts in the bushes. Some days, the wind made it seem like sound was never a thing graced by that assumed god. 

And Jongdae… Jongdae was a ghost, too. He was a lonely and sad ghost.

</3

The birds would have returned from the South at this time of year with their unified formations and good tidings. That’s how you knew the world was still alright. Jongdae stood with his chin tilted up, watching the sky and playing his memories. 

After he died, he remembered it all. Every second of the life he lived came in a neat wooden box, held closed by the smallest of copper latches. It seemed tired from holding it all in, like the wood would give at any moment. 

And when he opened it, he cried. 

~~He wanted to try again.~~

</3

Ghosts looked like mist. Jongdae watched small creatures weave like wisps of smoke between skeleton trees, petrified by the eras, by sadness and decay. The creatures looked content, and sometimes Jongdae felt a vicarious contentment just by watching them. But when their spirits drifted off to better pastures, Jongdae’s best emotions went along with them, leaving him to grasp at the thinning smoke.

He wished the animals would speak and tell him about life, if they still lived well despite humans, if they were capable of regret. But it seems, even in death, one will never know what the fox thinks when it chases rabbits. 

And where were the people? Did they wander like he did?

Jongdae died when the world was in chaos, and he woke up to quiet. It was as if the world died with him. 

Maybe the afterlife was just this: him, the animals, and a still place.

</3

He could not see the clouds through his hand, nor the sun for that matter. His clothes were not what he wore when he was last living. The trees still made the air taste of petrichor in the rain, but he never grew wet. Cold. Too hot. In spirit, there was no logic relevant from before his death, and the laws of physics and nature could not keep him from ascending to the topmost branches to hold the sweetest fruits which he could not eat.

And still, things were as they should’ve been. 

</3

His name was Sehun. He said so, talking to himself within the open doors of a building reclaimed by vines and weeds. He said it again, goading himself to courageously enter a room that sounded of mice and smelled of respiratory troubles.

“You can do it, come on. Go in. There might be medicine. Get in there, Sehun.”

Jongdae stood still within that room, watching Sehun who only saw through him. 

</3

Sometimes Jongdae would leave food in the open. The sweet fruit from atop the tallest trees which he was not privy to consume. A viable can of beets from a locked cellar. Mason jars to carry water from an old irrigation line. 

He would watch Sehun dance with joy upon discovering the gifts. Sehun, who was none the wiser, who never questioned their origins, or how strangely easier it became to survive.

To him, this was some god’s grace. Luck. Fate. It didn’t matter because he was full with strength for another day.

And Jongdae was happy to see Sehun happy. 

</3

They saw each other at the darkest of times. Sehun had misjudged the stability of the floors and fallen through two stories. He laid there in the rubble, scraped, concussed and broken in some places, wondering what had just happened. Why this was how it would go. A fall? 

A fucking fall?

Jongdae kneeled beside him in sadness, and placed his hand on Sehun’s. He tried to imagine the living’s warmth, tried to ignore the slickness of blood. Tried to comfort him in the dark as the beating of his heart grew fainter. 

And then Sehun looked at him in surprise.

But he could not hold his eyes open any longer, so he slept. 

</3

The birds would have flown South at this time of year with their unified formations and good tidings. That’s how you knew the world was still alright. Sehun stood with his chin tilted up, watching the sky and playing his memories. 

After he died, he remembered it all. Every second of the life he lived came in a neat wooden box, held closed by the smallest of copper latches. It seemed tired from holding it all in, like the wood would give at any moment. 

And when he opened it, he laughed. 

What a life that had been.

< 3

At last, Jongdae was no longer a lonely and sad ghost. 

<3


End file.
